


Day in the Life of a Cricket

by ConvenientAlias



Category: Marco Polo (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Concubine, F/M, Unhealthy Relationships, i think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 09:06:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11010306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConvenientAlias/pseuds/ConvenientAlias
Summary: “Sometimes Mom would dance with her clothes off for men. She thought I never saw, but I saw. Then sometimes they danced together, but the men were always bad at it.” Ling Ling grimaced at Jin Fei. “Do you dance with Jia Sidao? Is he good at it? He’s Mom’s brother, so he should know how to dance.”Or, the one where Jin Fei is happy to serve as Ling Ling's caretaker. She is not as happy with her relationship with Jia Sidao.





	Day in the Life of a Cricket

It was two in the afternoon, the sun high and the sky clear. Only a few days ago Ling Ling would have spent a day like this running around in the garden, trying to catch frogs and then practicing her dancing skills when Jin Fei told her she needed to settle down and act more like a lady. Now, she sat quietly on a bench, peeling apart a stalk of grass. Jin Fei had been trying to keep her amused but with her feet broken there was not much to do. Besides, she was not happy. Jin Fei couldn’t—and wouldn’t—force her to be happy, not after the way Jia Sidao had hurt her. She would be sad for a while, sad and confused and scared. And then she would either get better or she would die at Jia Sidao’s hands, and Jin Fei honestly did not know which it would be.

“Jin Fei?” Ling Ling said. She looked up from her stalk of grass, though her fingers continued to play with the grains attached to the end. Her eyes were wide.

“Yes?”

“Does Jia Sidao love you?”

Jin Fei swallowed. “Why would you ask such a thing?”

Ling Ling shrugged. At Jin Fei’s failure to answer, her expression had become listless. She stared at the piece of grass again, peeling and peeling. “He told me you would take care of me, and he said you were a good person. And he looks at you a lot, even when he’s talking to me.” She frowned. “He likes the way you look.”

That was much easier to answer. “Yes, he does like the way I look.”

“A lot of men like how Mom looks too,” Ling Ling said. “But Jia Sidao never did. He always made this face.” And with that, Ling Ling tried to contort her face into the sort of expression Jia Sidao had, indeed, typically made whenever he had to look at Mei Lin. The bastard had never appreciated anything about his sister.

“Your mother is very beautiful,” Jin Fei said.

“I think he likes you,” Ling Ling said. With her eyes wide again, she asked, “Do you dance for him?”

“Sometimes I dance for him.”

“Do you dance with your clothes off?”

Jin Fei said, “What?”

“Sometimes Mom would dance with her clothes off for men. She thought I never saw, but I saw. Then sometimes they danced together, but the men were always bad at it.” Ling Ling grimaced. “Do you dance with Jia Sidao? Is he good at it? He’s Mom’s brother, so he should know how to dance.”

“Men,” Jin Fei said, “Are not usually as good at dancing.” Especially not the kind of men who went to the concubines for pleasure. Concubines, after all, were supposed to know how to do all the work. Noticing Ling Ling’s stalk of grass was completely deteriorated, she picked a flower for her. “Here.”

Ling Ling began to pluck the petals off. “Jia Sidao likes you.”

“I suppose he does.”

“Could you tell him I don’t want to make my feet small?”

Jin Fei smiled. “Your feet are a surprise for your mother for when she gets back, Ling Ling. Remember? You’ll have to be patient.”

“Can you ask him?”

“I will ask him.”

It was a lie, of course. She would never dare to question Jia Sidao’s decisions. Not to his face.

* * *

 

Jin Fei loved Ling Ling. She was happy to take care of her, and although sometimes it felt futile when she couldn’t protect Ling Ling from the one danger that actually mattered, she did not regret receiving the responsibility. It had taken her out of the harem, as well. People called it an honor to work in the harem, to give pleasure to the emperor and various other royalty. But Jin Fei had never been so high in the ranks of the harem. She had slept with the emperor maybe once before he died, and apart from that had served sweaty military men who barely bathed before they showed up and, as Ling Ling put it, were very bad at dancing. The type of men Mei Lin would have killed before letting them touch her. But not everyone was as distinguished as Mei Lin.

Not that Jin Fei had ever been jealous. Mei Lin’s skills had been hard bought. And her position had put her in danger constantly from rivals and the court. Now the danger had come to fruition, although it had come from her brother and not, supposedly, from an enemy. Jin Fei had never wanted to bring herself to the attention of that type of dangerous man.

And now here she was, working day and night for the exact man who had finally brought Mei Lin down, even, at times, sharing his bed. The very thing she had never wanted. The world operated on a certain kind of irony, it seemed.

But she did not tell anyone of her doubts and fears. Her fellow concubines she barely saw anymore, and they would have told her to be grateful for her move up in the world. The Empress did not need anyone else’s troubles. And the only other confidant she had was Jia Sidao himself.

Not that Sidao ever listened.

“They say Kublai is still sick,” he said tonight, after Ling Ling was already asleep. They were alone in Jin Fei’s new room now, and he had already sat down on her bed. “Perhaps he may die. That would be nice, wouldn’t it? Let all the Mongols destroy each other fighting over power in his wake. They say his heir, Prince Jingim, does not have the respect his position would require. Probably he’d be dead only weeks after Kublai.”

Jin Fei did not offer an opinion. He did not want her opinion. He only wanted her to listen with a peaceful face, expressionless and serene. Even to offer him encouragement might well be too much. He was the sort of man who didn’t want a woman, really. He wanted a pair of ears, a pair of breasts and a pair of legs: the breasts full and soft, the ears and legs wide open. Tonight he required the ears first. The rest he would want later.

Now he beckoned her nearer with a sigh. He had taken out red paint and a delicate brush for her lips. Usually she painted her makeup on for herself, but for Sidao the painting process itself was a fixation, not just an outcome. One might take it as an act of humility, his bending to perform such a menial task for her. But it was really just another act of arrogance. He wanted it just so, just the way he liked it, the way red coloring would settle on her cupids bow and barely a finger’s width beyond. And she knew he liked too the way she would sit perfectly still for him, perfectly bowed. Nowhere else in his life would he find someone so easily controlled. Even Ling Ling would have stirred, but Jin Fei would be a statue for him, a doll. The perfect whore. But he had taken to calling her his lover.

He sighed as he pressed the brush to her lips, delicate as always. “I suppose it would be too much to ask for it to be that easy. Kublai will live.” The brush moved down, dotting her lower lip. He went over the same stroke three times before pulling it away. “And we will fight him another day.”

Jin Fei stood. She knew what he wanted of her now. He would not ask her, considering it beneath him. No, he would talk of politics and war. And she, unasked, would unwrap the ribbon of her hanfu and slowly unwind the cloth from her body. She would let it fall on the floor—Sidao hated disorder but folding it would ruin the mood completely. That would come later. After she had danced for him, after he had caressed her, after she had taken every ounce of his frustrated passions and laid them to rest, after he had taken his pound of flesh and greedily devoured it.

Then he would return to his own room for the night, and she would fold her robe back up and try to get some sleep. But for now, the dance still had to be completed. Just as it did nearly every night, recently. Ambition and stress had lit a hunger in Sidao that would never really be satisfied, but he believed that she had it in her to fill him, and he would keep on coming here and fucking her until he realized she was not enough. If that ever happened. For many lust-blind men, that day never came. In the harem, you saw all types.

* * *

 

“Have you seen my praying mantis?” Jia Sidao asked her.

Yes, she had seen his praying mantis. Many times. But he still liked to show her.

“Do you see the way he disables the cricket before he eats it?” Sidao said. He pulled her down to look. “Fools look to wolves and tigers for strategy. But in the insect world you can see the way of things as easily. To understand the meaning of life and death, one need only watch a mantis eat a cricket.”

Yes, she wanted to say. Yes, I know how crickets die and what a mantis feeds on. But do not expect me to enjoy watching it. You are a mantis—this is true! But I am a cricket and I do not like seeing a demonstration of how I shall die at your hands.

**Author's Note:**

> I should really get around to watching Season Two. Anyways, in Season One I always expected Jin Fei to remain a side character. It was nice that she became that major but did she really have to die? Also being Jia Sidao's pseudo-lover would totally suck.  
> Comments and kudos would be much appreciated!


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